1840.] 



of the Great Basaltic District of India. 



79 



A recent calcareous sandstone is formed in the bed of the stream, by the 

 dehris derived from the quartzose sandstone of the southern bank being 

 agglutinated by the carbonate of lime of the springs. 



A range of low bills having rounded summits, with conical elevations 

 projecting from their sides, runs in a north-west direction, three quar- 

 ters of a mile from the hot springs. The cap of these hills, where the 

 Pindee Ghat passes over them, consists of the argillaceous limestone, 

 and the large slabs of which it is composed, are fissured in various 

 directions, slightly convex upwards ; and when taken in the mass, they 

 have an anticlinal dip. On the summit, the strata are horizontal and 

 in several places are remarkably altered, the argillaceous and siliceous 

 ingredients having arranged themselves into a black chert, and a mix- 

 ture of calcareous matter with streaks of a white or pale blue enamel 

 resembling calcedony. The central parts of these bands are composed 

 of minute quartz crystals ; and irregular drusy cavities, coated with 

 amethystine quartz, occur in the blackened flinty portions. There 

 cannot be a clearer indication of the action of heat on a rock of a mixed 

 character than this, even when seen in hand specimens. The whole of 

 the base of the hill is composed of the usual black concentric basalt, 

 the nuclei of which are exceedingly hard and contain much olivine ; and 

 to its intrusion the alteration of the limestone, with its separation from 

 the strata below, is, without doubt, to be ascribed. 



Many hills composed of concentric basalt are scattered over the neigh- 

 bouring country, in insulated masses or long ranges rising in terraces, 

 and having flattened summits. The sides of the hills between the terra- 

 ces are steep, and their outline is well defined ; the rock also is black 

 and devoid of vegetation. The terraces occur at very different levels in 

 different hills, rising from the same plain ; and their whole appearance 

 indicates that their remarkable form is due to the circumstances which 

 attended their elevation ; and that they have not been subjected to any 

 extensive denudation. 



About five miles north of the hot springs of Urjunah and four miles 

 south of those of Kair, sandstone caps a gently rising ground, covered 

 with basaltic soil, Near the last- mentioned town, many hot springs rise 

 in the argillaceous limestone, which has been remarkably broken up and 

 altered by the globular basalt protruding through it in different places, in 

 masses several of which are only a few yards in circumference, 'i'he 

 limestone is, for the most part, nearly horizontal, but it is occasionally 

 more or less inclined, and, as is usual with this formation, it has no re* 

 gular direction or line of bearing. In a deep well near the village, the 

 water of which is of the usual temperature, the limestone is unaltered ; 



